The VIEW-Station environment: tools and architecture for a platform-independent image-processing workstation

An image processing workstation called the vision and image engineering workstation, or VIEW-Station, which as developed in order to merge the state-of-the-art software environment of a UNIX workstation and the computing power of the fast image processor, is described. The software system of the VIEW-Station is constructed hierarchically in order to allow device independence in porting to various hardware configurations and to achieve flexibility in developing application systems. An image computing language called V-Sugar, which provides specific data types and a functional notation, allowing image processing algorithms to be expressed simply, is described. The image memory management mechanism, V-server, and the window system extensions, VIEW-Windows, are described. They are integrated to provide an independent basis to hardware configurations